Retriever Aquatic Club Anti-Bullying Policy
HOW WE HANDLE BULLYING
If bullying is occurring during team-related activities, we use the following steps:
1. Intervene immediately. It is ok to get another adult to help.
2. Separate the athletes involved.
3. Make sure everyone is safe.
4. Meet any immediate medical or mental health needs.
5. Stay calm. Reassure the athletes involved, including bystanders.
6. Model respectful behavior when you intervene.
If bullying is occurring at our club or it is reported to be occurring at our club, we address the bullying by FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENED and SUPPORTING THE ATHLETES INVOLVED using the following approach:
FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENED
1. First, we get the facts.
a. Keep all the involved athletes separate.
b. Get the story from several sources, both adults and athletes.
c. Listen without blaming.
d. Don’t call the act “bullying” while you are trying to understand what happened.
e. It may be difficult to get the whole story, especially if multiple athletes are involved or the bullying involves social bullying or cyber bullying. Collect all available information.
2. Then, we determine if it's bullying. There are many behaviors that look like bullying but require different approaches. It is important to determine whether the situation is bullying or something else.
3. Review the USA Swimming definition of bullying;
4. To determine if the behavior is bullying or something else, consider the following questions:
What is the history between the athletes involved?
Have there been past conflicts?
Is there a power imbalance? Remember that a power imbalance is not limited to physical strength. It is sometimes not easily recognized. If the targeted child feels like there is a power imbalance, there probably is.
Has this happened before? Is the child worried it will happen again?
Remember that it may not matter “who started it.” Some athletes who are bullied may be seen as annoying or provoking, but this does not excuse the bullying behavior.
Once you have determined if the situation is bullying, support all of the athletes involved.
SUPPORTING THE KIDS INVOLVED
Support the athletes who are being bullied
Listen and focus on the child. Learn what’s been going on and show you want to help. Assure the child that bullying is not their fault.
Work together to resolve the situation and protect the bullied child. The child, parents, and fellow team members and coaches may all have valuable input. It may help to:
Ask the child being bullied what can be done to make him or her feel safe. Remember that changes to routine should be minimized. He or she is not at fault and should not be singled out. For example, consider rearranging lane assignments for everyone. If bigger moves are necessary, such as switching practice groups, the child who is bullied should not be forced to change.
Develop a game plan. Maintain open communication between the Club and parents. Discuss the steps that will be taken and how bullying will be addressed going forward.
Be persistent. Bullying may not end overnight. Commit to making it stop and consistently support the bullied child.
Address bullying behavior
Make sure the child knows what the problem behavior is. Young people who bully must learn their behavior is wrong and harms others.
Show the athletes that bullying is taken seriously. Calmly tell the child that bullying will not be tolerated. Model respectful behavior when addressing the problem.
Work with the child to understand some of the reasons he or she bullied. For example:
Sometimes children bully to fit in or just to make fun of someone who is a little different from them. In other words, there may be some insecurity involved.
Other times kids act out because something else—issues at home, abuse, stress—is going on in their lives. They also may have been bullied. These children may be in need of additional support.
Involve the athlete who bullied in making amends or repairing the situation. The goal is to help them see how their actions affect others. For example, the child can:
i. Write a letter apologizing to the athlete who was bullied.
ii. Do a good deed for the person who was bullied, for the Club, or for others in your community.
iii. Clean up, repair, or pay for any property they damaged.
e. Avoid strategies that don’t work or have negative consequences:
i. Zero tolerance or “three strikes, you’re out” strategies don’t work. Suspending or removing from the team swimmers who bully does not reduce bullying behavior. Swimmers may be less likely to report and address bullying if suspension or getting kicked off the team is the consequence.
ii. Conflict resolution and peer mediation don’t work for bullying. Bullying is not a conflict between people of equal power who share equal blame. Facing those who have bullied may further upset kids who have been bullied.
f. Follow-up. After the bullying issue is resolved, continue finding ways to help the child who bullied to understand how what they do affects other people. For example, praise acts of kindness or talk about what it means to be a good teammate.
Support bystanders who witness bullying. Every day, kids witness bullying. They want to help, but don’t know how. Fortunately, there are a few simple, safe ways that athletes can help stop bullying when they see it happening.
Be a friend to the person being bullied;
Tell a trusted adult – your parent, coach, or club board member;
Help the kid being bullied get away from the situation. Create a distraction, focus the attention on something else, or offer a way for the target to get out of the situation. “Let’s go, practice is about to start.”
Set a good example by not bullying others.
Don’t give the bully an audience. Bullies are encouraged by the attention they get from bystanders. If you do nothing else, just walk away.
